Shinran Shonin, New York

Staring pensively across Riverside Drive at the children playing in the park is the statue of Shinran Shonin, a 13th century Buddhist reformer.

Staring pensively across Riverside Drive at the children playing in the park is the statue of Shinran Shonin, a 13th century Buddhist reformer. In another life, the statue stood in Hiroshima and witnessed the devastation caused by the bomb. His New York home is between two Riverside Drive buildings right next to the New York Buddhist Center.

Holding a remarkably large collection, each of the 5 floors of this massive building has expansive and well-designed exhibits devoted to astronomy, biology, geology, anthropology, climatology, and paleontology